Nancy lived a life full of passion and determination—a passion and determination for doing the right thing to its fullest regardless of place or circumstance, a passion and determination that extended to her friends, relatives, business associates, and, especially, G-d. Family was as important to Nancy as anything else in her life. She never missed an opportunity to visit her sister Lori and her family when she was in Israel or when they visited us. Between her job and her avocations, there never seemed to be enough hours in the day, but she always found time to buy presents for her nieces and nephews and either sent them to Israel or had them waiting when they came here. They were truly a joy to her; her eyes lit up whenever they were mentioned, and the feeling was clearly reciprocated. One summer when Lori and her family were visiting from Israel, Nancy stopped at our summer home on the way home from a race in Pennsylvania to see the children. When she was about to leave, she lifted up one-year-old Chava to give her a hug and a kiss, and Chava clung to her so tightly that she had to be pried loose in order for Nancy to leave. It was this love for family that made Nancy take a “small” detour while on a biking trip in Spain to see them in Israel.

NANCY, THE OLDEST OF our five children, was born in Brooklyn on December 10, 1968. In June 1986, she graduated from Shulamith High School, an Orthodox Jewish girls’ school in Brooklyn, and the following year studied in Israel at the Machon Gold Seminary. When she returned to the United States, she enrolled in Queens College and graduated in June 1990, cum laude, with a degree in political science and communications. After graduation, she took a part-time job at a local travel agency, and her career as a travel agent was launched.

In 1993, Nancy joined Tzell Travel, a fairly large travel agency, and it was around this time that she developed into a first-rate skier. She had always loved the mountains and the snow. Starting from when they were very young, we would take our children skiing in Vermont during their annual winter break from school. It was during these trips that Nancy became an avid and accomplished skier and a lover of the outdoors: when everyone went in for lunch, she always wanted to make one more run, execute one more turn, or do whatever it took to become a better skier. In skiing, as in her other undertakings, she would not settle for second best.